Super Lazy

This may seem strange coming from someone who runs, but I'm really a naturally lazy person. Just ask my mom.

I am perfectly happy to curl up on the couch with a book or my laptop and not move all day. I don't even feel guilty when I do it either.

It's not the most productive way of living, so every day is a series of negotiations with myself over random things. It's usually along these lines:

I don't want to do that

Will you want to do it later?

Probably not. 

Does it need to be done?

At some point...

Just do it now and get it over with.

Fiiiiiiiine

It's all very mature, but at least I can generally get things done when I need to. This tendency is also part of what motivates me to sign up for races. I like running, I wouldn't keep running and racing if I didn't, but even things I like to do can fall victim to my default laziness.

Tom has been working in the city this week, and when he's gone I tend to be super lazy about meals. I'm the queen of the snack-a-thon - I'll just have a little of this and a little of that until I'm full. I'm pretty impressed with myself because I haven't done that this week. I have actually cooked something every night.

Not that I have anything against cereal for dinner, because I don't.

A few meals from this week:

This is not attractive, but it was delicious: rice with bell pepper, onion, mushrooms, broccoli and chicken.

Burger! (I would happily eat a burger every day) and some mostly successful potato wedges/fries. Considering I'm working without an oven they turned out pretty well!

Tonight was avocado with a side of chicken fajitas. Avocado is the best.

Do you have a food you would be happy to eat every day?

Time

I swear, the more free time I have, the worse I get with time management.

When I'm super busy I somehow manage to get tons of things done. When I only have work until 11am and have nothing else to schedule around, somehow I end up spending a lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing.

Today was busy. I taught classes at two different schools instead of just one. I spent a ton of time in the car, but I also put gas in the car, did some grocery shopping, and somehow convinced myself to go for a run and do some yoga when I finally got home.

Other days I teach and then can barely get myself to run. I'm super productive.

Buddy and I spent a little time outside at lunch. It is warming up around here - it's supposed to hit 70 on Wednesday, which is probably going to feel weird.

I was running as the sun went down, which made for some pretty views. 

My run wasn't fast today, but after having to cut a run short last week, I'm just happy that I hit my mileage without much trouble.

Buddy vs The Peanut Butter Jar

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I love when Buddy lays like this. Crazy frog legs.

He was following me all over the house and driving me crazy earlier. I gave him a peanut butter jar so he would get out from under my feet.

It worked.

So, I got another pair of fun tights. But, in my defense, they were free! Victoria's Secret was having a sale where if you bought a sports bra, you got a pair of workout pants for free! Plus, I actually needed a new sports bra. They're super comfy, and they're thicker than some of my other tights.

They apparently also glow in the dark.

I had to shift my runs around for the week so I could spend hours at the laundromat yesterday. I had put it off longer than usual, so everything took forever to dry. I can't wait until we have a washer and dryer again!

My post-laundry sock collection was pretty impressive.

These Balega socks are definitely my favorite running socks. Tom gets me new ones every Christmas. I have THESE and THESE. They're the best.

My run today was a kind of loose-y goose-y tempo run. It was only supposed to be 30 minutes, so I ran comfortably hard (such a runner term) for the middle 15 minutes. Aside from the headache I got from breathing the freezing air, it was a really nice run. As much as I always dread speed work, the more I do it, the better I feel about it.

Would you rather do speed work or run long? I will run all day long - just don't make me sprint!

Crazy Tights

It is so weird how my level of motivation to do anything can vary so much from day to day. I didn't want to do anything after work today. Fortunately my training plan called for a rest day, so I didn't have to try to drag myself out for a run. I did today's Yoga Camp video and pretty much called it a day. 

I bought a crazy pair of running tights - they arrived today! I keep seeing all these fun tights on blogs and instagram, and I finally got a pair of my own. 

It's just a bit of a departure from all of my black leggings/capris. They're pretty - we'll see how they do on my run tomorrow!

The house was warm according to the Buddy thermostat this afternoon.

I normally do yoga up in the office, but it's been chilly lately, so I have been rolling my mat out in front of the fire. Then the side of my body that's closer to the fireplace gets too hot. I can't win.

I made dinner on the wood stove again tonight. It got a little out of control. Somehow I ended up with a mountain of sweet potato, onion, chicken, broccoli rabe and avocado. I wasn't mad about it.

Do you have any crazy workout pants or do you stick with more subdued ones?

The Buddy Thermostat

It's weird to have an alarm going off in the morning again. I have also gotten bad about going to bed at a reasonable hour. As much as I enjoyed having a break from work, it will be nice once I'm back in the routine. Plus I'm in training mode now too - I'm adding back all the routine at the same time.

I brought Buddy on my run today. He was psyched, but then drove me crazy the entire way back to the house.

For some reason, Buddy always gets really slow when we turn around to go home, no matter how long or how short our run is. I managed to trick him one time by taking a loop around a street he had never been on and he didn't seem to realize we were heading home. He's a weirdo.

We like to use him as our thermostat in the house. The warmer it gets, the more stretched out he lays. When he's cold, he curls up in a tiny ball and tucks his nose under his feet. But sometimes he's a little dramatic and inaccurate.

He is currently laying right next to the wood stove, which is burning furiously, like this:

Ridiculous.

I have nothing else terribly exciting to share today, so I'll just leave you with more cute Buddy pictures.

Time Flies

Well, hi there!

I feel like I haven't posted anything in forever! I keep thinking about it, and just haven't made it to the computer. There have actually been days this week that I never turned my computer on, which is rare.

I can't even say what has been keeping me away, because thinking back over the last few days, I don't really know. I don't feel like I've been doing much more than usual, but I must be, because the days keep flying by.

I've been: teaching classes, moving firewood, helping Tom assemble a garage-in-a-box for the tractor, going to the grocery store, making dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry, Christmas shopping...just living life I guess.

I actually started writing this on Wednesday afternoon, and here we are and it's Thursday. Whoops!

My running has been generally lazy since my run with the group on Saturday, but I did get in a good 4 miles worth of intervals this afternoon. I am still liking my Moov Now a lot, and I will try to get a review up for you. Eventually.

I spent more time than I care to admit carefully peeling that blue Nuun sticker off of a box today so I could add it to my training log.

The box was from this cute skullcap that I won on Twitter last week. Yay free stuff!

In case you're having Buddy withdrawals, here's a picture from the other night when he invited himself onto the couch. 

Anything new and exciting with you? How's the Christmas shopping going?

Thanksgiving, Playing Chicken and Shopping

How was your Thanksgiving?

We had a pretty laid back holiday, which was really nice. Tom was up dark and early to do a little sitting in the woods hunting with our neighbor. Buddy and I had a relaxing morning and I finally got myself out the door around 10 to go for a run.

My watch is back and fully functional!

TomTom customer service was wonderful and the only thing I had to pay for was shipping the busted watch back to them. I ran an easy 8 with my audiobook, took a short break at home and then went back out for another 2 with Tom and Buddy. Ten Thanksgiving miles before the big meal.

The house was too hot when we got home, so we spent a little cool off time in the yard. Sometimes when Buddy is running around the yard he plays chicken. He runs straight at you and then veers off to one side or the other at the last second and just keeps on running. Only yesterday, instead of holding still, I tried to move out of the way and took his giant head right to the side of my knee. I ended up on my butt, facing the opposite direction I had been standing. Tom did a really good job of making sure I wasn't actually hurt before he started laughing. There's definitely a bruise, but I'll survive.

We went to Tom's friend's house for dinner and had a nice time visiting with everyone and eating way too much food - as is traditional.

I spent most of today thinking that it was Saturday, and doing dishes. I have no idea how two people create so many dishes. We're just talented like that. Plus I checked out a few online black Friday deals and did a little Christmas shopping from the comfort of my couch. I don't do black Friday. People are crazy.

Did you brave the crowds and go shopping today?

What was the best part of your Thanksgiving? 

The Best Part of Not Training

I've pretty much been training for something all year. Between my 4 half marathons and Steamtown, I haven't really taken any breaks.

The great thing about not being "in training" for anything is that I can pretty much do anything I want. I don't feel like running? That's fine - I don't have to. Feel like doing yoga today? Great, go for it! I don't want to do anything? That's ok, too.

I have barely run since the marathon. I took Buddy for a couple of two milers, which he loved. Today I got changed to run and he got really excited, but I was going past his 2 mile max, and got a really sad look when I walked out the door.

I want to build up Buddy's endurance a bit so he can join me for more runs.

For maybe the first time ever, I have been doing more yoga than running. It feels good to slow down. I found a YouTube channel with a yoga instructor that doesn't drive me crazy, and I have been doing her 30 days of yoga video series. Most of them are less than 30 minutes, so it's not a major time commitment. I'm on day 5, which is longer than I usually stick to yoga. :) She also has a ton of other videos, even one that's for couch potatoes!

I keep trying to get a picture of Buddy when he's waiting for his dinner. He gets this look that makes us think of Dobby the house elf from Harry Potter. This is close, but not quite the Dobby look.

Dobby would like some dinner, please.

He helped me do some bookkeping today. I was all dressed up in my running clothes and bunny slippers.

Just trying to keep up my reputation for extreme fanciness.

I helped Tom stack a bunch of firewood this afternoon.

Unfortunately, that's only about a third of the wood currently laying in our driveway. Also unfortunate: our new wood stove didn't come in this week, so this giant pile is pretty much decorative.

Excuses and It's My Birthday!

So, I have a nice little post in the works about my marathon training must haves that I started on Tuesday. Then my computer decided to give me a heart attack and I walked into the living room to see the Blue Screen of Death.

I spent the rest of the night backing up my hard drive.

And then I was completely exhausted on Wednesday and I just couldn't drag myself to the computer.

AND today is my birthday! So, rather than finish my post or write anything new and exciting for you, I'm going to sit here in my post-Chinese food coma and relax for the evening.

Please enjoy this photo of Buddy looking cute in lieu of quality content.

Slowly but Surely

It's possible that I have the start of a cold. Or allergies. Something like that.

Either way, I was super tired this afternoon and decided that I was better off not running. At this point, getting sick would be a lot worse than skipping out on a few miles.

Tom took the sliding doors out of the living room yesterday. The lumber for the addition is supposed to get delivered on Friday, maybe. The "two weeks" that the construction is supposed to take is apparently 14 work days, and they aren't here every day. Things are happening, slowly but surely.

Buddy doesn't like when Tom goes outside without him. He just stares at the door until Tom comes back.

I've been reading Marathon whenever I'm at the laundromat. I finally finished it the other day. I have read a ridiculous number of running books and articles, so there wasn't a ton of new information, but some of the marathon-specific parts were interesting.

I refuse to think about how soon the race is - that's a good pre-race strategy, right?

Some Randomness and a Movie Night

I've gotten really bad about blogging lately. Between work, random house projects, and marathon training, blogging seems to be the thing that gets dropped first. So today you get a super random update. Aren't you excited?

We got this big (10'x20') canopy for the patio area. Since the grill is pretty much our only way of cooking right now (other than the toaster and the waffle iron), we needed to make sure the weather wouldn't stop us from having dinner.

My Wave Sayonara 2s should really be retired at this point, but I had a super great run in them this week, so today is not that day.

Buddy likes to lay in the narrowest spot in the house. That way you can't go anywhere without him knowing. Don't you love our kitchen floor? It's getting replaced. For sure. And the cabinets...and the counters...most of the kitchen really.

This is a really good, summertime beer. Grapefruit IPA, yes please!

I am a super lazy member of Influester, and somehow managed to get picked for their Sunshine VoxBox. I am pretty excited to try out the Vaseline spray moisturizer, and I have been looking for those sriracha almonds every time I go to the grocery store. I love getting to try out new things for free! (Who doesn't?)

Thursday night we decided to go to a drive in movie theater. Dogs are allowed, so Buddy got to come with us.

He was pretty happy to be invited.

We saw Minions and Jurassic World. Minions was really cute and funny and Jurassic World was way better than I had been led to believe.

There are actually a couple of drive ins near us, so there's a definite possibility that we'll be going again.

Have you gone to a drive in? 

Do you now have the "stranded at the drive in" song from Grease stuck in your head?

How about now?

Super Random

It's taper week for me, so there's not a lot of terribly exciting things to report. I ran 4 miles today - exciting, no?

Instead I'm going to give you a bit of a photo dump. Most of it is pictures of Buddy, so I think you'll enjoy it. 

I got a new cell phone case! Yes, those are cheeseburgers. One of my college roommates has an Etsy shop (check it out HERE) full of her super cute artwork and a shop at Society6 (browse away!) as well. 

A wasp decided to make his (her?) home in our mailboxes. See it in the upper right corner? It isn't there anymore because Tom is much braver than I am and took care of it. He didn't get stung or anything!

New seasonal chapstick flavors!

How is this comfortable?

Buddy in the springtime.

An upside down view.

Up close and personal.

He's kind of a weirdo.

I'm starting the race week ritual of checking the weather and trying to decide on a time goal. Right now it looks like a high in the mid 70s with light rain. I'm hoping that changes. As for a time goal...well, I've still got some time to think about that.